


Where the Moomins Are

by neocitybynight



Category: NCT (Band), Paper Towns - John Green
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Neighbors, Paper Towns AU, Suggestive Themes, ex!donghyuck, just like making out, like it's basically paper towns but i fixed it and added renjun, revenge plot begins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24785887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neocitybynight/pseuds/neocitybynight
Summary: Renjun is utterly and stupidly in love with his next door neighbor, but has never been able to admit it. That all changes the night before graduation, when he hears a knock on his window.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Reader
Kudos: 19





	Where the Moomins Are

Renjun was never really one for facts. He was the kind of kid who built fairy houses in the backyard, who would insist on his parents checking for monsters under the bed for far longer than he’d like to admit, and, as a teen, was deeply invested in the possibility of ghosts, aliens, all manners of unknowns existing, if only you knew where to find them.

But life is made up of facts, and as high school drew to a close, even he couldn’t avoid the most glaring ones. One: tomorrow was graduation, and next fall he would be heading to his dream college, leaving this sleepy hell of a town and all its sleepy, unimaginative people behind forever. Two: he was truly and pathetically in love with his next door neighbor, but it would never work because three: he was a loser.

It wasn’t for any particular reason - he’d spent many years wondering if it was because of his snaggletooth (which he’d had fixed), his narrow shoulders (which he’d grown into), or maybe his quiet personality, but for whatever reason, Renjun was the kind of student who simply existed. Not like you. You shone as bright as a star.

He remembered the day you’d moved in, the summer before seventh grade. He was sitting at the kitchen table, idly doodling a hybrid he’d thought of (he loved drawing animals that didn’t exist in real life, this one looked to be a monkey-squid cross), when the large shape of the moving van slide by, creating a temporary blockage in the bright sunlight.

Running to the big kitchen bay window, he pressed his nose against the glass. The street hadn’t had new neighbors in years, even less kids his own age. The only one was Richie, who always picked his nose and never wore matching socks. It wasn’t that Renjun had an issue with the socks part, it was also that Richie was the type of kid to salt slugs and fry ants under a magnifying glass, so he kept a safe but respectful distance.

He watched the blue minivan pull up beside the large white moving truck. Out came two grown-ups, a boy maybe a few years older than him and then...you. Even at the tender age of twelve, Renjun knew what the word pretty meant. And just how it applied to girls, and could set his heart beating, just as it was now. You climbed out of the car, brass-buttoned overalls and bright red Converse bright against the dull suburban landscape, holding the leash of a large white dog (Samoyed, his brain told him). The dog barked, straining excitedly, and you laughed, nose scrunching up. Though he couldn’t hear what you said to calm the animal, you could see how gently you handled him, reaching into your pocket for a treat as you disappeared behind the van and into the house.

Ten minutes later, he was standing on your doorstep, wondering if it was too late to run away. In his hands was a lemon-glazed bundt cake, a welcome gift your mother had been insistent on sending. “Maybe you’ll make a new friend, Renjunnie,” she’d said. “I think they have a girl around your age.”

Sure enough, the door came flying open before he could even knock, and there you were. “Hi,” you say, smiling widely, and he was surprised to see that you had a slight snaggletooth, just like him. It didn’t diminish your cuteness, though, on the contrary, he found it charming. “Are you my new neighbor?”

“Um...” Renjun stammered. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say?”

“No, silly,” you said, rolling your eyes as you pulled the front door shut. “I live next door to you, you live next door to me, you’re my neighbor, and I’m yours. It’s called reci-pro-city. Do you know that word? I just learned it the other day. I get this word of the day email, you know, big adult words, although there was the option to get words at my reading level, but I thought, if I’m going to go the trouble, why go with the lowest level, you know?”

Renjun’s head was spinning. Yes, he did know what reciprocity meant, and he also got an email-of-the-day (for cryptids, not words) but a combination of his shyness and his overall inability to form coherent thoughts around you (that he would soon discover) made him a mute.

“You don’t talk very much, do you?”

“I guess not.”

“Oh, but you can, that’s good,” you said. “I was afraid I’d have to talk for both of us. It’s a dreadful bore to have a friend who can’t keep up a conversation.”

“Are we...friends?” he managed.

“We will be,” you said. “And if I like you enough, I might even let you join my super secret club.”

“Club?”

“It’s top secret, very exclusive,” you said. “If I tell you, will you cross your heart and never tell a soul?”

He nodded, raising his right hand, drawing a small cross across his chest, spitting into his hand for good measure.

“It’s a hunting club,” you said. “Wanna know what we hunt?”

Renjun knew hunters, his friend Chenle told him all the time about going rifle hunting in the woods with his uncle. He found the practice to be mildly cruel and majorly gross, but didn’t say so. 

“Moomins,” you said, eyes lighting up. “Do you know what Moomins are?”

Did Renjun ever. Not particularly religious in any way, Moomin was the closest thing Renjun got to a church service. Every Sunday morning, he’d run downstairs, grab a bowl of sugary cereal, and plunk himself down in the den, just in time for the morning Moomin cartoons on BBC. They were reruns, of course, but he watched them avidly, giggling at the adventures of Moomintroll and Snufkin. His room was full of scribbly crayon drawings of the tubby white character, and he was almost ashamed to admit how much Moomin merchandise he got every holiday. But Renjun being Renjun, the only thing that came out of his mouth was a single timid _yes_.

“Yay, let’s go then,” you said, grabbing his hand and pulling him bodily towards the porch steps.

“Where are we going?” he said, hurriedly placing the bundt on the porch swing.

“To the woods, silly, that’s where the Moomins live. Come on.”

And that’s how he came to be friends with you. For a bit, anyway. Looking back on it, he never knew why - you were so outgoing, so smart, so funny, so pretty, he always felt like he was just a measly little planet (Pluto, probably) being pulled into your shining orbit. But for some reason you chose him to be the one and only member of the Moomin Hunting Club, and for that summer, you spent nearly every day outside, running through the woods, swimming in the nearby lake, biking into town for ice cream from that parlor you loved so much. By the end of the summer, he was pretty sure he loved you, whatever that meant to his little twelve-year-old heart. 

But come the school year, things were different. Unfortunately, Renjun wasn’t the only person who recognized your awesomeness, and you were instantly popular. Everyone wanted to be your friend, and soon, there just wasn’t enough room at the lunch table for the small, shy artist. 

You started having less and less time to hang, and eventually, he got tired of feeling like a pity invite. If he’d picked up his head from his place at the self-proclaimed loser’s table, he would’ve seen your eyes on him occasionally, a little sad, but he never did. 

Starved of your presence, he subsisted on tales of your crazy adventures - breaking into the aquarium, touring with the circus for a summer, dating pop star Mark Lee but dumping him before his appearance on Inkigayo because he was too quiet for your taste. 

Gradually, his heart hurt less and less, his love for you smoothing over like a piece of seaglass tossed in the turbulent ocean of high school. By the time senior year rolled around, you were practically strangers. 

_I believe humans are inherently altruistic, but that we don’t always get the right venue to show it. We are at our best and most selfless when helping others, and that’s what I hope to do here. I want to volunteer so I can make a real difference, however small that might be._

Renjun types the final period of his application essay, grimacing. He hates how trite and buttoned up the whole thing sounds, but that’s what you get when you apply to give drawing lessons to nursing home residents. He sometimes wishes he’d picked up another marketable hobby, but, well, _c’est la vie._

He looks at the clock, yawning - 10:30. Grabbing a thick book off his bedside table, he snuggles under his soft duvet, ready to settle down for the night.

_Tap. Tap. Taptap._

Renjun sits up with a start. Looking towards his window, he’s rather horrified to see a black-clad figure crouching on the roof outside. His hands scramble for something, anything, that he might use to defend himself, but he only comes up with a worn plushie. 

Then the figure pushes their hood back, and he realizes it’s you. Wearing a black hoodie and no makeup, just as pretty as the day he met you. Relaxing only a little (his heart is still beating fast), he pads over to the window, throwing it open. “Hi,” he says. “Wha-”

“Shh,” you say, placing a finger to your lips. “You have a car, right?”

“Um, yes,” he says. Well, technically it’s his mom’s car, but you don’t need to know that.

“Good. Let’s go.”

“Sorry, but where? What do you need a car for?”

"I’m on a mission, and that mission may involve a getaway driver. Actually, it definitely does, and also a trip to Walmart. So are you in?”

“It’s late, can’t this wait until morning?” he says, though he has to admit, the idea of spending any amount of time with you is appealing.

“No, it’s strictly an after-dark thing,” you say. Your eyes stray to the stuffed animal still clutched in his left hand. “Is that the Moomin doll I won for you? From that arcade?

He looks down and nods, a little embarrassed. _Great, now that you know he’s kept it for the better of six years like a stalker and slept with the damn thing on the bed_. But your expression softens a little. “Okay, now you have to. As president and dictator-for-life of the Moomin Hunting Club, I hereby compel you, vice-president Renjun Huang, to come out with me on this adventure. For old times’ sake?”

Renjun looks at you, and all his inhibitions about being out after curfew, about being caught up in whatever thing you might need a getaway driver for, crumble. He’s never been able to say no to you. “Fine. But if you get me arrested...”

“I’ll buy you a red bean matcha fish from the H-Mart. That’s your favorite, right?”

Stunned that you remember, all Renjun can do is nod as you instruct him to wear a black hoodie like your own, and does he have pair of gloves, good, you don’t want fingerprints, then make for the window. “Are you crazy, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting out the same way I got in,” you say, shrugging. “It’s only two stories, I’ve done worse.”

“We have stairs,” he says. “My parents are heavy sleepers, we’ll be fine.”

“Boring,” you say, pouting. “But okay.”

Pulling on the hoodie, Renjun leads you out of his room, tiptoeing down the stairs. You follow after him on cat’s feet. “Your house hasn’t changed a bit,” you whisper, brushing your hand over one of the embarrassing childhood photos Renjun’s mom hung on the stairwell. “Even smells the same.”

Renjun just smiles quietly to himself - you haven’t changed much either, it seems, always bouncing with energy, remarking on the strangest little things. Grabbing his keys from the hook near the door, you both manage to get into his car without waking his parents. Pulling out onto the street, he turns to you. “You said we needed to go to Walmart?”

“Yes sir,” you say, drumming your fingers on the dashboard. He notices that your nails are painted sparkly blue, but seriously chipped. A wave of nostalgia rolls over him as he remembers you forcing him into makeovers, painting his nails and drawing all over his face in lipstick.

“Can I ask what it is you need a getaway driver for?”

“You can,” you say. “And I’ll tell you, I suppose. I just discovered that my lovely boyfriend of, oh, these last few months has been cheating on me.”

“Oh,” is all Renjun can say, though he hates how his heart jumps at the realization that you’re single. Then immediately shrivels, feeling selfish. “I’m sorry?”

“I’m not, Donghyuck was kind of a dick,” you say. “But, the fact is, he’s cheating on me with my very own best friend, which I find to be Judas-level betrayal. So, I’ve decided to give them a little payback.”

Renjun isn’t sure what a rotisserie chicken, ten rolls of plastic wrap, a bungee cord, a tube of lipstick, and one of those little barnyard noise toys for kids has to do with payback, but he doesn’t question your choices as you go through the Walmart checkout. Honestly, he’s just too caught up in the actuality of being in your presence, smiling as you chatter about literally nothing on the way to the car, doing a little pirouette in the dark parking lot just because. _God, he’s missed you._

Back in the car, you give him your best friend’s address, with whom the (ex!) boyfriend is apparently canoodling right now. Yes, you actually use the word canoodle, laughing at the horrified expression on Renjun’s face.

“Okay, park a block or two back,” you instruct. Still half wondering why he’s doing this, Renjun does as he’s told. Grabbing the supplies, you get out of the car, stooping to grab a good-sized rock as you slink down the sidewalk.

“Are you going to throw that through the window?” Renjun whispers.

“Do you think I’m some kind of monster? Property damage is strictly against my principles,” you say indignantly.

“But breaking and entering isn’t?”

“What’re we breaking?” you shrug. “Okay, now here’s the plan. They’re probably Netflix and chilling the basement, that’s Donghyuck’s move. After plastic wrapping his car, I’m going to sneak into her room and give her this little present, then set up the noise machine outside. Her parents are heavy sleepers, so they’ll need a little something to wake up. Once you see the light in the master bedroom turn on - that’s the second window from the right - *67 the number I gave you and tell them what I said. Then when Donghyuck runs out like the coward he is, take a picture of his naked ass.”

“Okay,” he says, licking his lips that have suddenly gone dry. He’s really here, he’s really about to prank the most popular guy in the year. Lee Donghyuck is the captain of the swim team, the quintessential golden boy, despite being kind of an ass. 

_Of course you would choose a guy like him over me,_ he thinks, a little bitter. But then almost laughs. It’s not like you ever showed signs of liking him, and he’s sure as hell never admitted his feelings. Feelings which are quickly reigniting as he watches you sneak across the lawn, testing for motion sensors or sprinklers.

You both make quick work of plastic wrapping Donghyuck’s car, a showy red Audi, and then, quick as a flash, you scale the trellis on the side of the house, slipping in through a window with practiced ease. After a few minutes, you drop down, landing silently. Placing the little barnyard machine under a bush, you wedge the rock onto the play button, and suddenly the night is filled with the sound of chicken noises. 

A light flips on, and Renjun reaches into his pocket, heart pounding. Typing *67 before entering the number, he presses the call button. It rings about five times before a groggy voice answers.

“Hello?”

“Hello, sir, I hope you’re having a good night,” Renjun says. “But I just thought you would like to know, there is a boy in your basement who is currently canoodling with your daughter.” He cringes as the word _canoodle_ comes out of his mouth.

“Who the hell is this?” the voice says, but Renjun hangs up. Gesturing frantically to you, he sinks down behind the hedge that separates the yard from the sidewalk. You run over, bent double, and crouch beside him. In no time, the basement light flicks on. He hears a scream, followed by a man’s angry voice.

With a clatter, the basement window opens, and out runs a very panicked, very naked Donghyuck. He clutches only a letterman jacket, which he holds over his crotch as he runs down the sidewalk. “Now!”

Renjun fumbles with his phone, hitting the button just in time. A flash lights up the night as Donghyuck runs across the street, but he’s too preoccupied with the state of his plastic-wrapped car to see. With a wail, he runs down the street, naked ass pale in the moonlight.

Back at the house, Renjun can hear the yelling continue, then the light clicks on in the room you’d climbed into, which is followed by another scream. In the window, he can clearly see the chicken hanging from the ceiling, a bungee cord noose around its neck, and written in blood red lipstick on the window are the words _YOU’RE A GODDAMN CHICKEN, KAREN!!_

“Let me see the picture,” you say, reaching a hand for his phone. “God, what an ass.”

“I don’t know, are swimmers known for their glutes?” Renjun says.

You look up from the phone, an incredulous look on your face, and he wants to shrink and crawl into a hole, then you burst out laughing. “Did you just make a joke, Injunnie?”

The childhood nickname slips from your lips easily, and Renjun feels like his ears are on fire. You look at him, eyes glowing with a kind of mischievous light, a puckish grin on your face. “Um,” he clears his throat. “You said you needed a getaway driver?”

Just then, a shout of “the fuck is this?!” sounds, and he sees the tall form of a man stooping and picking up the animal noise machine, which continues to squawk.

“Yup, go time,” you say, grabbing his hand and yanking to his feet. Sprinting down the sidewalk, you both bundle into the car and Renjun speeds down the street, tires squeaking.

“That was insane,” Renjun says, taking a deep breath. “I thought my heart was going to explode.”

“It feels great, doesn’t it?” you say, rolling down the window, letting a hand trail out in the night breeze. “The adrenaline. There’s nothing like it.”

“Is that why you do it?” Renjun bursts out. 

“Do what?”

“Go on all those crazy adventures. I mean, did you really break into the aquarium just for fun?”

“I wanted to see the turtles,” you say. “And yes. Wanna go?”

“Hu-what?”

“To the aquarium,” you say. “I’m serious. We could go, right now.”

Renjun weighs his options. Say no, break no more rules, go home and sleep and pretend none of this happened tomorrow, just as he has for the least six years. Or...

“Can you really get us in?”

Fifteen minutes later, and he’s walking into the back arena of the aquarium. You have a skeleton key, you tell him, after working a summer as an assistant seal trainer, and they’ve never changed the locks. Closing the iron fence softly after him, he follows as you weave through the empty seats of the arena. A giant, empty pool glimmers in front of him, the one used for seal and whale shows. You walk right to the edge, sitting just a little too close to the lip for him to be comfortable. He sits beside you, if only to be there to catch you if you fall.

“This is amazing,” he says. 

“Really?” you say. “I think it’s disgusting.”

Renjun turns to you, surprised. “But didn’t you work here?”

“As a spy,” you say quietly. “I planned to release the seals at the end of the summer but I realized, we just don’t live in a place with indigenous seals. They’d die in our harbor, too polluted.”

“But aren’t the seals endangered?” Renjun says. “This is like a rescue clinic for them.”

“And why do you think they’re endangered in the first place?” you say, uncharacteristically bitter. “We steal their homes, we catch them in nets, we put them in here and make them do tricks and call it saving. What kind of a life can it be? People don’t really know you for you, they just see one thing and that’s who you are. Adventurous. Fun. But they don’t know that you’re secretly rotting and dying and suffocating inside, and they wouldn’t like you if they knew.”

The last part of this is delivered with a kick, your black boot flinging up water that splashes down in a glittering arc. Renjun bites his lip. He’s so used to your sunny weirdness, hearing you like this makes him a little sad. He wishes he knew what to say, he always wishes he knew, but he’s not good with this. He’s not good with words, with people, with _you_. But seeing you look so miserable, yet so alive, so passionate, he almost moves without thinking. 

Leaning forward, his eyes flutter closed as he plants a soft peck on your lips. When your lips don’t move (he’s not very experienced in kissing, but he thinks you’re supposed to move your lips too), he pulls back, eyes opening. You look at him, head tilted to one side, curious and maybe a little amused, but not in a mean way. “What was that for?”

 _“I know you for you.”_ Renjun would normally cringe at the cheesy line, but all he can think about is you, the heady adrenaline running through his veins, your beautiful, half-shadowed face in the darkness. “You say they don’t know you, but they have to. You’re such a bright, kind, funny, smart-”

“Monster,” you say, standing up, eyes suddenly anguished. “None of that is real, Renjun. I’m funny because people like funny people. I’m bubbly because people like bubbly people. I do my homework, but not so much that they’ll hate me. _I’m not real.”_

Renjun stands too, heart beating wildly, heat flooding his chest. “That’s not true. What about everything you’ve done? Everything we did when we were kids, the Moomin Hunting Club, all your adventures.”

“Those are what I do, not who I am,” you say, wrapping your arms around your own waist. You look so small, collapsing in on yourself, nothing like your normal confident persona. “But you take all that away, what am I, really?”

Renjun takes a step forward. Maybe it’s the adrenaline of the night, the giddy high from pranking Donghyuck, the soft glow of the aquarium tank giving him strength. “People don’t just like you for what you do. People like you because of who you are. You’re so kind to everyone, even the people others overlook. You have a genuine curiosity for the world, and aren’t afraid to get lost and have crazy adventures everyone else would be too scared to have. You’re someone who isn’t afraid to reach out a hand to snaggletoothed boys with lemon bundt cakes and whisk them away to go hunt Moomins and eat ice cream until your stomachs hurt. You’re so unapologetically you, which is why everyone loves you, which is why I-” his voice catches in his throat.

“Why you what?” you say, taking a step closer. Your hand comes up to cup his cheek, eyes soft, mouth curving into a small smile.

“I love you,” Renjun whispers, and in his life, he’s never spoken truer words. “And I know you don’t feel the same way, but I just...I can’t hold it in anymore.”

Your hand tightens on his cheek a little, your eyebrows drawing together. You don’t look entirely surprised, but something else swims in your eyes as you look at him. “I’ve been so stupid,” you say softly. “You know, Renjun, out of everything I regret about high school, you’re probably one of the biggest. I hate that I somehow lost you, that I cared more about popularity than staying friends with you.”

His heart nearly breaks at the word friend. “It’s fine, I don’t-”

“I only wish we could’ve had more time,” you say. “To experience high school together like we should’ve, to get to know each other in that way, maybe. Maybe I’ve always known that the potential is there, haven’t let myself think about it because it made me sad. But I...I’m going to Europe next year, and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

Renjun bows his head. It would be foolish of him to think that just because you spent a crazy, adrenaline-packed night together and he confessed his love, that you’d fall into each other’s arms like in a cliché YA movie. 

“But,” you say. “We do have a few hours before we’re supposed to graduate. We could...” 

He looks at you, and is surprised to see you looking a bit shy, of all things. If he opens his mouth, he feels like his heart will burst, so instead he leans forward, covering your mouth with his. This time you do kiss him back, hands sliding into his shaggy brown hair. His lips are a little clumsy, a little inexperienced, but you don’t seem to mind as you pull him close. Your tongue flicks across his bottom lip, making him shiver. His hands, at first limp at his sides, slide tentatively to your waist, pulling your hips into his slightly. You hum against his lips at that, which he finds encouraging. Opening his mouth, he reaches out with his tongue, and is met with yours. He doesn’t know exactly what you do, this little twisty move, but wow, it feels good, making his head spin a little, sending heat thrumming through his body as you tangle your tongues together. 

The kiss becomes heavier, more heated. You nip his lip gently, while also tugging a little on his hair, which makes him grunt in surprise and pleasure, making you giggle as you move to kiss the side of his mouth, his cheek, his jaw, then his throat. Renjun opens his eyes, head tipped back, vision filling with stars both literal and figurative as you nuzzle into his neck, placing little butterfly kisses all over his skin, sucking lightly.

 _So this is what it feels like,_ Renjun thinks, as you recapture his mouth. _Getting everything that you want, all at once._ Drawing his lip towards you, you move your hips slightly, pushing your bodies together just a bit. Renjun shudders as your thigh brushes across his crotch, which is already embarrassingly sensitive just from kissing. You draw back, looking concerned. “Too much?”

Renjun shakes his head. “Shouldn’t it be you first though? I mean, shouldn’t I-”

“We don’t have to do anything,” you say, though your blown pupils are a bit of a giveaway. “Renjun, I told you, I can’t be with you in the way you want, at least not more than physically. It’s not that I don’t want to, but what kind of a life would I be giving you if you went to college with a girlfriend? More than that, a girlfriend who’s not even on the same continent?”

Now it’s Renjun’s turn to look you in the eyes, take you by the shoulders, thumbs fitting into the grooves of your collarbone. “I may not be good with relationships, physical or otherwise, but I do know that good things aren’t always easy to come by in life. And when you do find something, you should hold onto it, for however long you have it.”

He thinks he sees a tear glinting in the corner of your eye, but maybe it’s just a trick of the low light. “God, Renjun,” you say. “I missed you.”

And then you’re kissing again, your hands running up under Renjun’s shirt, making him shiver as your fingers ghost across his skin. Everything is so hot, hazy, star-filled kisses and soft lips. Renjun’s hands grow bold, reaching up to brush lightly across your breast. You make a small noise at the light touch and push into him just a little, your face drops to the crook of his neck, and you press a soft kiss there, just savoring the feeling of his body against you as he fingers explore you, touch featherlight.

“PUT YOUR HANDS UP, YOU ARE SURROUNDED, DO NOT TRY TO RESIS-” the voice stops. “Oh, no, it’s you again?”

You turn, disentangling yourself from Renjun, straightening the hem of his shirt. “Larry,” you say, smiling. “What’s it been, two summers? How are Florin and Laurent doing?”

“The seals are fine,” a little man in grey coveralls steps forward, a look that’s half amusement, half exasperation on his face. “You, however...what’s this, the sixth time I’ve caught you? Do you know what would happen if anyone but me found you?”

“I guess I’m just lucky,” you say, shrugging. “We were just leaving, anyway.”

“You’d better be,” he grumbles. “I’m happy you finally dumped that no-good swimmer boy, but please don’t have sex at the seal arena.”

Renjun flushes darkly, but you just take it in stride. “Roger that,” you say. “Thanks, Larry. See you around?”

“I don’t doubt it,” the little man says gruffly. “Now get out of here, before I really call the police.”

Saluting Larry with two fingers, you grab Renjun’s hand and pull him away from the soft glow of the arena. Giggling at the horrified expression on his face, you slip into the front seat, not bothering to buckle. “Larry’s chill, don’t worry,” you say.

Renjun’s more focused on getting the blood flowing in all areas of his body as he drives home than Larry, pulling into his own driveway out of habit. “Oh, I’m sorry, I should take you home...”

“This wasn’t a date,” you say softly. “I mean, usually I’d expect more popcorn, hand holding...”

Renjun looks at you, heart heavy. “When did you say you’re leaving for Europe?”

“Two weeks after graduation,” you say. “Which gives us-” you look down at your phone. “About thirteen days and twenty-two hours.”

Renjun reaches across the console, lacing your fingers together. “Well, there’s the hand-holding part. Popcorn, I’m awful at cooking, but we can make it work. I don’t mind thirteen days if you don’t.”

You look down at where your hands are laced, then back up to Renjun, eyes burning with love, affection, and just a little bit of sadness, everything that’s mirrored in his heart. This may be foolish, this may be impulsive, this may end up breaking both your hearts, but then, you guys have always been a bit that way, haven’t you? “You’re on, Injunnie.”

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted on Tumblr, find me @neocitybynight & say hi ♥︎


End file.
